"One of the things that I love about voiceover is that it's a situation where - because you're not encumbered by being seen - it's liberating. You're able to make broad choices that you would never make if you were on camera."
Better known as Luke Skywalker, The Joker, Fire Lord Ozai or Christopher Blair, Mark Richard Hamill (born September 25, 1951 in Oakland, California) was considered one of the best young talents in the 1970s. Though praised for a strong performance as Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars franchise, he could never match the success of his most famous role. Despite being typecast, he was frequently in demand and performed in several lesser known films before turning more to theater (not just to pay the bills, but because he preferred it), eventually getting juicy lead roles in big plays on Broadway like Amadeus and The Elephant Man. (Actors that had seen his performances include Jackie Gleason, Christopher Walken, and a memorable after performance meeting with the great Katharine Hepburn.)
He has also become one of the most acclaimed voice actors in the industry. He's best known for playing dynamic, outright evil villains (ironic, considering his previous typecasting as a hero fighting against The Dark Side) in animation, most notably The Joker as stated earlier — many consider him to be the definitive interpretation of the character. He's a nice guy in real life, despite the typecasting.
There is a persistent story about Hamill being in a severe car accident that caused serious facial injuries that required reconstructive surgerynote and many believe it's why his character is all banged up early in Empire Strikes Back. Hamill refutes this, saying he just suffered some scratches and a broken nose and he doesn't understand how the incident was blown so out of proportion. It is, however, why he resembled a Ken doll in the infamous The Star Wars Holiday Special, as the accident happened not long before.
His career came full circle in 2014, where he lent his villain-voicing expertise in Star Wars: The Clone Wars as Darth Bane, and then it was announced he'd reprise his role of Luke Skywalker in The Force Awakens and he then reprised his role as the Trickster in the CW Flash series. All of which has earned no small amount of critical acclaim and the Darth Bane role even got him an Emmy nomination. Life is good for everyone's favorite Jedi, it seems.
Be sure to check out his Twitter
and Facebook accounts, which are often filled with Funny Moments.
Mark Hamill's Roles
- Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars trilogy (A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi) and the sequel trilogy (The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and The Rise of Skywalker).
- Played Luke again in an ad for Vector Prime.
- He also voiced Luke in a Robot Chicken sketch.
- And in the first two Star Wars radio adaptations.
- And in a cameo in Family Guy.
- Voiced Darth Bane in Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
- In the Bad Lip Reading take on The Force Awakens, he voices Han Solo.
- Also voiced Dobbu Scay, the small alien gambler who puts tokens into BB-8 at the Canto Bight casino in The Last Jedi.
- Car-obsessed teenager Kenny Dantley in Corvette Summer, his first role after Star Wars.
- Private Griff, an expert marksman with an aversion to killing, in The Big Red One. Made three years after the first A New Hope in an effort to avoid typecasting.
- The Joker in Batman: The Animated Series and its subsequent followups in the DC Animated Universe. There's a reason he's called Mark Hamill. He has reprised his role as the Joker in other media such as various Robot Chicken sketches and in Batman: Vengeance, Batman: Arkham Asylum, DC Universe Online, Batman: Arkham City, Batman: Arkham Knight, and Justice League Action. He also dubbed over a live action version of Joker in Birds of Prey played by uncredited actor Roger Stoneburner.
- Various other characters in other DC Animated Universe productions, including Solomon Grundy in Justice League and Ferris Boyle in the Batman: TAS "Heart of Ice".
- While he didn't play The Joker in Batman: The Brave and the Bold, he and Kevin Conroy still got to appear (as The Spectre and The Phantom Stranger, respectively.)
- In one short for Justice League Action, he voiced three characters and himself, when famous voice actor Mark Hamill gets kidnapped by The Trickster and The Joker before eventually being rescued by Swamp Thing. He even manages to outsmart the two villains by tricking them into thinking the other was saying rude things about them when it was actually just Hamill imitating their voices.
- Various other characters in other DC Animated Universe productions, including Solomon Grundy in Justice League and Ferris Boyle in the Batman: TAS "Heart of Ice".
- The Hobgoblin in Spiderman The Animated Series
- The Trickster in The Flash (1990) (and again in Justice League Unlimited, The Flash (2014), and Justice League Action.)
- Sinestro and the Trickster (again) in Lego DC Super Heroes: Attack of the Legion of Doom.
- Maximus in Fantastic Four
- Gargoyle in Hulk
- Stickybeard in Codename: Kids Next Door
- The Skeleton King in Super Robot Monkey Team Hyper Force Go
- The Red Lynx, Jonny and Burke in SWAT Kats
- Steve in Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders, Snakebite Scruggs in Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island, Zip Elvin in Scooby-Doo! Moon Monster Madness, and Deaconnote in Scooby-Doo! Camp Scare.
- Goro Majima in the English dub of Yakuza 1
- Fire Lord Ozai in Avatar: The Last Airbender
- Adrian Ripburger in Full Throttle
- Most of the Omniscient Council of Vagueness from Metalocalypse, among many others.
- Christopher Blair in live action cutscenes of Wing Commander games 3, 4, and Prophecy, and also lent his voice to the animated, younger incarnation of his character in the USA Network cartoon Wing Commander Academy.
- Also provides the voice of "Merlin" in the movie (though the final credits don't list him by name, simply showing "Merlin: ???")
- Colonel Muska in the dub of Castle in the Sky
- Hanukkah Zombie in the Futurama movie, Bender's Big Score.
- The Spectre in Batman: The Brave and the Bold.
- The Watcher in Darksiders.
- Brent Matthews in Body Bags.
- Malefor from The Legend of Spyro
- Cock Knocker, a villain from the Bluntman and Chronic universe in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.
- Did a guest shot as himself (leaning heavily on his legacy as Luke Skywalker) on the season 10 episode of The Simpsons "Mayored to the Mob", where Homer becomes Mayor Quimby's bodyguard after saving Hamill from a sci-fi convention of rioting nerds. He also did a "secret" guest role in the same episode as the Drill Sergeant Nasty Leavelle who teachers Homer how to become a bodyguard. Reportedly, he requested that he be allowed to play a character.
- Played himself again in Pepper Ann, including the finale where it was revealed that he was elected president.
- And once more in Freakazoid!.
- The Larry 3000 on Time Squad
- Master Eraqus in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep and Kingdom Hearts III
- Buzz Buzzard in The New Woody Woodpecker Show.
- Tod Wainio in the audio adaptation of World War Z.
- Undergrowth in Danny Phantom.
- Skips the Yeti in Regular Show.
- Klaw in The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes!.
- Red Skull in The Super Hero Squad Show
- Sean in Ralph Bakshi's Wizards
- Wolverine in the licensed game X2: Wolverine's Revenge
- Detective Mosely in Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers
- Stankfoot in Zevo-3
- Emperor Griffon's humanoid form in Dark Cloud 2.
- Corey Anders in Jeannie (Hamill's debut as a voice actor). Reprised the role in The New Scooby-Doo Movies.
- Guest starred in an episode of The Muppet Show as both himself and Luke Skywalker.
- Will Tasker, a relentless bounty hunter in Slipstream (1989).
- Lundgren, an evil serial killer dolphin, in NTSF:SD:SUV::
- Dr. Pullem and the mall Santa in Dan Vs..
- Crybaby Clown (yes, another evil clown) in the season 2 premiere of Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated.
- Abraham Kane in Motorcity
- Alvin the Treacherous in Dragons: Riders of Berk
- Himself in I Know That Voice
- A much younger Hamill appeared as a side character in The Partridge Family.
- Hamill cameos in the Cold Open of Chuck's fifth season premiere, continuing the series's tradition of Casting Gags featuring Geek Culture icons.
- Also had a cameo on Saturday Night Live, as a genuine Mark Hamill —NOT a Bruce Boxleitner— for sale on QVC. He's eventually bought by Harrison Ford, who claims he had to put his last Mark Hamill to sleep after it turned out to be a Bruce Boxleitner.
- The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia: A policeman named Conrad.
- "The Replicator" in Criminal Minds.
- Himself in Just Shoot Me!, where he's constantly pestered by Finch until he turns the tables by being just as annoying back.
- The Shapeshifter in Gravity Falls.
- Dr. Sam Stein in The Outer Limits (1995) episode "Mind Over Matter".
- Professor Arnold in Kingsman: The Secret Service.
- Maltruant in Ben 10: Omniverse.
- Gadfly Garnett in Miles from Tomorrowland.
- Reverend George in John Carpenter's Village of the Damned (1995).
- Time traveller Capt. Michael Raynor in Time Runner.
- Kavaxas in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012).
- Phineas Tiberius Mindslap in Mystery Science Theater 3000 (one-episode Cameo in Carnival Magic)
- Py-Ro in Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex
- Swamp Thing, The Joker, The Trickster, and himself in Justice League Action
- Turtle in My Friends Tigger And Pooh
- Kobash, The Mountain Lion in the Direct-to-Video adaptation of The Crippled Lamb by StarToons Animation
- Burt in Danger Rangers
- Dictatious in Trollhunters, especially fun as he's playing an evil relative of one of the main heroes at the same time the Star Wars sequel trilogy was being made.
- Megatronus/The Fallen in The Transformers: Titans Return & The Transformers: Power of the Primes
- Frankenstein in Uncle Grandpa
- Temper in the Best Fiends webseries. He's actually playing a Batman parody character in this role, a far contrast from the Joker. Later replaced in the role by Phil La Marr.
- Chucky from Child's Play (2019)
- skekTek the Skeksis Scientist in The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance
- Jim the Vampire in What We Do in the Shadows
Mark Hamill's works provide examples of:
- Added Alliterative Appeal: He invents unique hashtags for his tweets, usually being alliterative.
- Badass Baritone: Some of his roles such as Alvin the Treacherous, Wolverine, Darth Bane, and Fire Lord Ozai are dripping with this.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: When a Yakuza fan approached him on Twitter, Hamill confessed that he had no idea who Goro Majima was, and that he had done so much voice work in his career that he couldn't remember all of his roles. He also stated he'd forgotten that he voiced Chucky in a Robot Chicken sketch, after he was announced to reprise his role in Child's Play (2019)
- Career Resurrection: After the release of Return Of The Jedi, Hamill didn't have a huge amount of work that wasn't directly tied to Star Wars. Then, in 1992, his portrayal of the Joker gave him massive acclaim, giving him an entirely new niche as a world-class voice actor, almost universally as villains, ironically enough. Everything then came full-circle when he voiced an apparition of Darth Bane in Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
- Evil Laugh: Due to voicing The Joker for well over 20 years, he has this down to an art formnote . It's been twenty years and we're still not sure as to what he's inhaling to do these laughs.
- Evil Is Hammy: Many of his villainous roles tend to be grandiose, particularly The Joker.
- Flip-Flop of God: Whether he's done voicing the Joker or not. At first, he said that Batman: Arkham Asylum would be his last time. But then came back for DC Universe Online and Batman: Arkham City, and said that the latter would be his last time, with Richard Epcar from Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe stepping in for Injustice: Gods Among Us and Infinite Crisis, and Troy Baker in Batman: Arkham Origins, Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate, and Batman: Assault on Arkham, despite the presence of Kevin Conroy in most of those projects.note Despite Batman: Arkham Knight opening with the Joker's cremation, he reprised the role in flashbacks and hallucinations. He has, however, made it clear that he will come back for an Animated Adaptation for The Killing Joke—then came back for Justice League Action. And yes, Hamill did voice the Joker in Batman: The Killing Joke. And then he came back for DC Supervillains a few years later, but he didn't reprise the role in Batman vs. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (where both Batman and Joker were voiced by Troy Baker), so it comes and goes.
- Guttural Growler: Roles like Skips are pretty big examples.
- I Am Not Spock: Averted, as he recently stated that he is fine with people identifying him with his famous roles, as he doesn't expect to be remembered for everything.
- One Twitter user put it thus, after Hamill criticised controversial FCC chairman Ajit Pai for wielding a lightsaber in a Harlem Shake internet video:I love how a lot of celebrities are like "I want to distance myself from this iconic character I played and I don't use that influence for making political statements" and then mark hamill is like "luke skywalker would hate you, personally, in canon."
- He's also entirely happy to use his having been the Joker, famously reading out multiple Donald Trump tweets in his Joker voice.
- One Twitter user
- Pigeonholed Voice Actor: The poster voice actor of this trope. Thanks to his role as The Joker, he is often typecast into villains.
- Playing Against Type: Ironically, his most famous role (Luke Skywalker) is this, as 90 percent of his roles are villains.
- On the voice acting side, there's also Skips from Regular Show (who is the Only Sane Man), The Larry 3000 on Time Squad (who does amoral things and sometimes takes a level in jerkass, but isn't really a villain), and one-time character, Leavelle the Body Guard School Instructor on The Simpsons episode "Mayored to the Mob" (who does berate the students in his class, but that's more of a Drill Sergeant Nasty way).
- Pretty Boy: Certainly was one◊ in his much◊ younger years.
- What Could Have Been:
- After playing in Amadeus on stage, he auditioned in the hope of getting the role in Miloš Forman's movie, without success.
- He was almost tricked into appearing in the documentary The People Vs. George Lucas, but he quickly realized, even before the title was finalized, that it had an anti-Lucas vibe to it, and refused to take any part in it.
- Vocal Evolution: His voice has gotten hoarser and lower as he's aged. This is especially noticeable in long-running characters like the Joker when comparing his earlier work with his more recent performances.
